


and for the first time, what's past is past

by sam_writes_fics



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Car Accidents, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Short One Shot, and everything after it would have been the same, i mean this didn't happen but like it could have happened, i think, idiots in love but won't admit it, not stopping for red lights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29944188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sam_writes_fics/pseuds/sam_writes_fics
Summary: Josh gets into a car accident and the hospital calls Donna because she's still his emergency contact.Set sometime during season 6, when J/D are working on opposing campaigns.
Relationships: Josh Lyman & Donna Moss, Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 6
Kudos: 87





	and for the first time, what's past is past

**Author's Note:**

> Not my characters, just love to write them.
> 
> *Minor description of injuries, nothing graphic*
> 
> Title inspired by lyrics from Begin Again by Taylor Swift

It was late, and some the Russell staff were still at headquarters trying to finalize their movements for the next few weeks. People were slowly leaving one by one, until it was only Donna and Will left, just like it usually was around this time.

She had just opened a new set of polling data when her phone rang.

“Hello?” Donna answered the call from the unknown number on her cell.

Will wasn’t paying any attention to her or the call until he realized that four minutes had passed, and Donna still hadn’t said anything to the caller.

When he finally looked up at her, she looked like she’d seen a ghost.

“Donna?” he asked.

She continued to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone for another minute before murmuring a quiet “thank you” and hung up.

“Donna?” Will asked again.

She snapped out of it for a second.

“That was… There’s been… He was in a car accident.”

“Who was in a car accident?”

Donna stared at the carpet while she tried to focus on her breathing.

“Donna, who was in a car accident?”

She finally met his eyes, and that’s when things clicked into place for her.

“Josh.”

“Josh Lyman?” Will asked. “How do you know, does the press have it?”

“No,” she shook her head. “The hospital called me.”

Will wore a look of confusion.

“Why would they call you?”

“Because,” she started with a sad faraway look in her eyes, “I’m still his emergency contact… Just like he’s still mine.”

At that, she started packing up her workstation and throwing things into her purse.

“Where are you going?”

“Where do you think I’m going? The hospital.”

“Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “They said it’s not critical but I’m not sure how bad it is.”

“I don’t understand,” Will started, “why are you going to the hospital?”

“What are you talking about?” Donna was running out of patience for all of Will’s questions.

“What am I talking about? Donna, you gotta think of the big picture here. You can’t be seen rushing to the bedside of Santos’s campaign manager, he’s the enemy-”

“He is NOT the enemy,” she bit back with fire in her eyes. “He may be the opposition in this campaign, but he’s not the enemy.”

Will was terrified of that look. He was almost too scared to say anything else. Almost.

“Donna-”

“I’ll quit if I have to,” she said so quietly he almost missed it. “I don’t care. I’m going.”

“Donna, you can’t-”

“You were _there_!” she yelled. “You were right there. You watched him _run_ out of the White House and fly halfway across the world for me when I needed him. He dropped everything for me.”

Will tried to think of a response, but nothing came out.

“What makes you think I’m not willing to do the same?” she asked, her voice cracking on the last word.

“What am I supposed to do here?” he asked, unsure of what to actually do.

“Go back to work,” she said as she threw her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll be back for the breakfast strategy session tomorrow. Unless…” She shook her head. “I’ll call you if anything changes.”

She couldn’t bring herself to say, _unless things take a turn for the worse_. She felt it would be tempting fate.

*

Josh’s whole left side hurt.

It was nothing compared to getting shot and having open chest surgery, but still, everything hurt.

His left arm was broken, that was confirmed. It wasn’t too serious, nothing a few weeks in a cast and sling couldn’t fix. It didn’t even hurt that bad when he kept it still. It was his side that really bothered him. His shoulder was definitely hurting from the impact, and the doctors said he likely had a few bruised ribs.

His legs were seemingly unscathed, and he could walk just fine. Well, he could move his legs just fine, actually walking kind of really hurt everything else.

To top it all off, he had a split lip from the airbag and two stitches over his eyebrow from the shattered glass of the window.

He looked and felt like… well, like he’d been hit by a car.

At least this time they didn’t have to cut him out of his clothes. He was lucky enough to keep those on and not have to dawn one of the ugly hospital gowns.

The nurse finished placing a bandage over his stitches and told him she’d be right back with his discharge information.

“Have they called anyone for you yet?” she asked from the doorway.

“What?”

“You need to call someone to come pick you up. I can have someone else make the call if you’d like.”

“No,” he shook his head slightly, which just made his headache worse. “I can do it.”

“Okay,” she gave him a slight smile. “I’ll be right back.”

Josh fished his cell phone out of his pocket. His finger hovered over the #1 button on his speed dial for a few minutes.

He wanted to call her. They were in the same city, again. It wouldn’t take her long to get there. He knew that she was good at this. She was good at taking care of him. She was good at making him feel better.

And that was exactly why he couldn’t call her.

That wasn’t what she wanted anymore. She didn’t want anything to do with him. He could see the hurt and the anger on her face whenever they ran into each other. He couldn’t keep being the reason for it.

He finally hit speed dial #4 instead and held the phone up to his ear.

“Otto,” he said as soon as the kid picked up the phone. “I need you to send a car to come get me. Send it to…”

He was about to call for the nurse to ask what the name of the hospital was again, but his voice died in his throat as he turned towards the door.

In his doorway stood the last person he expected to show up tonight.

“Never mind, Otto,” he said as he hung up the phone.

Donna looked him over, taking stock of his injuries from top to bottom. She folded her arms and tilted her head just a little bit, the way she always did when she was studying something.

He wanted to tell her he was happy she was there. He wanted to tell her that he missed her. He wanted to tell her so many things, but instead he went in a different direction.

“What are you doing here?”

Even he was a little shocked when those words came out of his mouth.

Donna, on the other hand, didn’t flinch. She was prepared for a little pushback.

“The hospital called me.”

“Oh.”

They stared at each other for another minute before the nurse came back with the discharge papers and the home care instructions for the stitches and the cast. She went over it with him, but Donna was sure he didn’t hear a thing. He sat there with that wide eyed stare, just looking between the floor and Donna.

When the papers were signed, and Josh was free to leave, he stood up slowly from the hospital bed.

Donna watched him wince as he tried to put weight on his left side.

Without words, she moved to his ride side and put his arm around her. She let him lean on her as they walked silently to her car.

The drive back to his hotel was mostly silent. About halfway through she asked the only question that kept replaying in her mind.

“Why didn’t you call me?”

Josh, trying very hard not to have a panic attack from being inside a car again so soon after the accident, didn’t hear her the first time.

“Why didn’t you call me?” she repeated after a minute.

Josh pried his gaze away from the window and forced himself to look at her.

“I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

Donna shot him a quick look of disbelief before turning her eyes back to the road. She knew he was lying. She let him squirm in silence for another minute until he tried again.

“I thought you didn’t want to hear from me. I thought… I thought you were still mad at me,” he admitted quietly.

“I am.”

Josh sighed and then rubbed at his eyes until he could see stars.

Donna reached over and held his uninjured hand.

To say that Josh was confused about this whole situation was a massive understatement.

The rest of the ride they sat in silence, holding hands as Josh rested his head against the window and Donna drove down the quiet streets of DC.

When they finally reached his hotel, he didn’t even bother trying to protest her helping him up to his room. He was too tired, and too confused, and everything hurt.

They made it up to his room, somehow without being seen by anyone, and as soon as they were inside and the door was closed, Donna turned serious.

“Joshua Lyman, I need you to listen to me.”

His deer in the headlights face was back as he locked eyes with her. They stood there, maybe a foot apart, in the entryway to his room.

“You’re supposed to call me.”

His shoulders sagged.

“Donna, I-”

“No,” she quickly cut him off.

“You call me, Josh.”

“You’re mad at me, Donna.”

“Listen to me,” she said as she placed a hand on either side of his face. “I don’t care how pissed I am at you. When something like this happens, you call me. You got it?”

She sounded so determined in the way she spoke, that Josh couldn’t do anything but nod his head in agreement.

Once he did that, she pulled him in to a hug. It was gentle enough that it didn’t hurt his arm, but it was tight enough to show she was glad he was alright.

He let his face fall into her neck and wrapped his good arm around her back in response. He let her hold him, just like that, for as long as he could.

“You call me, and I come get you,” she whispered into his shoulder, “you remember why?”

He nodded against her as he whispered back, “no stopping at red lights.”

“Just like we promised,” she said as she tightened her grip around him.

“Just like we promised,” he sighed back.

They stood like that for another minute before Donna eventually broke off the hug.

“Are you gonna be alright here tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he answered honestly. He was hurting physically, but he would be alright.

“Okay,” she nodded as she turned towards the door.

“Donna?”

She turned back.

“Thanks.”

He wanted to knock himself out for not saying more. He wanted to say more, but he just couldn’t find the right words. He knew that ultimately it didn’t matter. Nothing he could say right now would do more than the one word he offered her. He also knew that if anyone was going to pick up all the words he didn’t say, or read through the subtext, it was going to be Donna.

The small smile she gave him in response was enough to know she got his message, loud and clear.

“You call me,” she said with a pointed finger as she opened the door.

He gave her a small smile in return and nodded his head as she left.

The door shut and Josh hung his head for a minute before walking over and collapsing on the hotel bed.

For the first time in the last hour, he really let himself feel the pain of his injuries.

His head hurt, and his arm hurt, and his ribs hurt, but none of that mattered anymore. None of it mattered because tonight Josh figured out that he was going to be fine.

He and Donna were going to be fine.

Josh wasn’t so good at the long game, at least not when it came to her, but the short game was where he thrived. He knew there was a lot of ice between them that needed to thaw, but he wasn’t afraid to show that he’d make the first move.

He pulled out his cell phone again, this time hitting speed dial #1.

“Hello?”

“Donna,” he started as soon as she picked up, “you’ll never believe what happened to me tonight.”

She listened quietly while she let him recount the events of the evening, starting with a car slamming into his driver side door and ending with him being taken care of by a friend. They talked about nothing else but that for an hour before he finally let her go.

He knew that she still needed space, and he knew not to push his luck.

He didn’t know how long it would take, but he knew that someday, eventually, he would win her back. While he figured the rest out, he could deal with her being mad at him for a little while longer.

Josh knew that her anger was nothing but another red light in the long line of red lights that had formed between them.

And he knew that he’d blow them all for her – just as she would for him – every single time.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the tumblr prompt "Just like we promised."
> 
> As always, comments fuel my ego.
> 
> Come hang on tumblr, you can find me at sam-loves-seb


End file.
